PianoFighter Gabi Patacsil discusses Scrabble and the double-duty lifestyle.
I run down the steps to the 16th Street BART train after a(nother) late night of rehearsal, hoping I can catch my train which is just arriving. As I hit the bottom step, the doors close in front of me, and I look forward to an additional twenty minutes of banal iPhone fumbling added to my already lengthy commute. I resume my games of Scrabble but soon get annoyed by the computer (set to “hard” of course) that has reached its third bingo of the game (bullshit). I go through the latest slew of emails knowing I’ve no energy left to craft the simplest reply. I text my brother (slash new roommate) that I’ll be arriving at the the N. Berkeley BART at 11:40-ish (yeah that’s PM). He’s going to meet me so I don’t have to walk those dark, empty streets all by my lonesome. I look forward to that 10 minute walk which serves as our only qt and the only time I’m not going to be judged by how well I play my part, at work or on stage. Hopefully, the feeling is somewhat mutual. I get to bed a bit past midnight and set my alarm for 6am, set to repeat my typical 18 hour day.
The amount of caffeine I ingest would make most people bounce off the walls, but it keeps me juuussst relatively alert. I overdo the makeup to *try* and hide the dark circles and pale complexion. The whites of my eyes remain a permanent pinkish hue. I use vacation days to do laundry and hopefully add to my average 5-6 hour/night sleep schedule. I’ve stopped buying fresh groceries after I realized I was just buying that bread and those vegetables time before they made friendly with some mold and a trash bag. All of this is a direct result of a double (doubly full?) life I lead. One that is all too familiar to many of my other theater peers. By day, I am a strategic consultant which, in the simplest form, means conducting user research to inform design. On the evenings and weekends, I throw myself into this production or that, acting, directing and/or producing another show to be seen by my faithful fans. And by fans I mean my coworkers and friends (well, some of them).
And, well, I guess I love it all.
Theater has long been a part of my self description and has done more for my personal development than any other presence in my life. My job as a consultant can be incredibly demanding, and I would sometimes dream of a way to make theater actually pay. But then I would get that super cool project with the best client ever, or be blown away at a roundtable with various experts talking about some obscure or forward thinking topic – and I get as excited as I do for opening night.
You all know the pirate store, right? 
